Major (retd) Shahjahan Omar, who left BNP and was nominated by the ruling Awami League (AL) for the Jhalakathi-1 constituency, secured a landslide victory by a huge margin of votes in yesterday`s 12th National Parliamentary Election.
Shahjahan was elected by 95,478 votes while his rival Abu Bakkar with the "rose" symbol got only 1,624 votes.
Jatiya Party-backed candidate Ezazul Huq bagged 1,272 votes in the election held at 90 polling stations.
Detective police picked up Shahjahan from a house in Dhaka in the early hours of November 5 as a suspect in a case filed over burning a bus. The same day, a Dhaka court placed him on remand for four days in the case.
On November 29, the then BNP Vice Chairman Shahjahan walked out of jail after securing bail from a Dhaka court. The following day, he submitted a nomination paper online as an Awami League candidate for Jhalakathi-1 constituency. The same day, BNP expelled him from the party for breaching party discipline.
Shahjahan Omar served as state minister for law during the last BNP led government.
